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AFF ad slams Obama on Libya, Israel

By ALEXANDER BURNS

10/04/2012 01:49 AM EDT

The American Future Fund is poised to launch a TV campaign in Iowa denouncing Barack Obama as a president who has fallen down on the job in the Middle East, strategists for the conservative outside-spending group told POLITICO.

AFF is spending $343,000 between Oct. 5 and 10 to air the commercials, which make specific reference to the North African embassy and consulate attacks last month. The ad campaign may expand beyond that location and time frame.

“Sept. 11, 2012: Our ambassador is murdered. U.S. embassies under attack. Our president? Skips his security briefing the next day to attend a fundraiser in Vegas,” the ad charges. “Al Qaeda surges. Turmoil engulfs the Middle East. Our president? Too busy to meet with our closest ally in the region.” (That would be Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose image appears on screen.)

The spot closes: “Is America leading? Are we safer? It’s time for a leader who takes charge.”

Fact checkers have poked holes in the claim that Obama regularly skips his intelligence briefings, but the overall message – that Obama has not been an assertive leader in a turbulent region – is one Republicans have been delivering with growing confidence. The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found Americans divided on Obama’s approach to Libya and Egypt: 45 percent of respondents said they approved of Obama’s handling of the situation, while 46 percent said they disapproved.

The ad is a reminder that Wednesday’s debate covered only a fraction of the issues at stake in the presidential race; despite speculation that moderator Jim Lehrer would ask about the violence in Libya, that topic went unaddressed. Obama and Mitt Romney will face off on foreign policy, specifically, in an Oct. 22 debate in Boca Raton.